Contest featuring 'rainbow lobster' turns a little green with envy

A controversy over who-caught-what has led the first-ever "Craziest Lobster Contest" in southwest Nova Scotia to really live up to its name.

The photo ofa "rainbow lobster" has won, it was announced Tuesday. But in a twist, organizers were forced to double the prize money and hand it to different fishermen from different boats one of whom was wrongly credited with catching the crustacean, and the others who actually did.

Last month, car dealership Murray GM Yarmouth & Barrington posted on Facebook, asking for pictures of curious-looking lobstersfor a contest its marketing department put together. Hundreds of pictures were submitted, each vying to earn the most Facebook likes anda $500 gift card. Only one picture could win.

The contest reached a half-million people on Facebook between Dec. 7 and Jan. 3, according to dealership owner Jeff Little. The winning photo earned over 1,600 likes.

'Fun' contest gets complicated

"You know, the contest was put out to be a fun contest and we wanted to make sure that it stayed fun and there were no hard feelings," Little said.

The dealership will hand out two $500 cards to two different winners. Chad Graham of the vessel Chad & Sisters Two out of Westport, Brier Island, will get one. Another will go to Clint Grant and Doug Nickerson, crew of the vessel Sudden Impact out of West Pubnico.

Little says the winning photo was first submitted on behalf of Graham, but he contactedthe dealership this past weekend to say the photo was submitted "in error."

CBC News published a story in January2016in which Graham's sister says he madethe colourful catchon Dec. 19, 2015. Grant and Nickerson never saw the article.

Requestsfor comment from Graham this week about the photo and the contest went unanswered.

'We caught that lobster'

Grant and Nickerson say the enviable photo is theirs and contacted Murray GM when they saw it in the contest. They also wanted to know why photos they'd sent inof the same lobster weren't published in the contest.

"I just wanted to get the story straight that it's our picture. We posted it. We caught that lobster," Grant told CBC News.

Grant and Nickerson point to their post in a private Facebook group for lobster fishermen, dated Dec. 12, 2015, that featuredtwo photos of the rainbow lobster, including the one in the contest.

"I don't doubt in my mind that [Graham's] caught a different-coloured lobster before," said Nickerson. "But that picture is our picture."

Prize money donated to charities

Grant and Nickerson say their choice to dispute the claim is not about the money. They say it's about credit going where it's due.

In fact, they'll be submitting their prize money to the Yarmouth SPCA. Graham will give his to the Yarmouth food bank, according to Little.

"We did feel that Chad had actually caught a rainbow lobster [in the past], but we wanted to make sure the crew of Sudden Impact who actually had caught that particular rainbow lobster also receive some recognition as well," said Little.